Julia Ullman - 1:2

Week 1, Post 2
This morning was the final program for the Religious School year, Mitzvah Day.  The program is geared toward K-6 students and their families.   Mitzvah Day (Mitzvah means a good deed, or literally ‘commandment’) is a morning of service projects aimed to connect students, families, and the temple community with the greater Cleveland and even global community.  There were 12 stations set up all around the temple building this morning ranging from making felted soap (really cool project, you should try it!) to sorting toiletries for MedWish.  One station was making a congregational gift for the Education Director (who still has not yet given birth…).  There was a station for someone of every mind: crafty projects, organizing projects, cooking projects, etc.  Kids of all ages were running around the building all morning with friends and siblings, working on some really cool projects and learning about the organizations that we were supporting.  This past week while I was preparing the materials for the program, I learned a lot about some really incredible organizations in the Cleveland area that do such powerful work.  I also learned a lot about how to prepare a program, food, materials, etc. for a large-group event.  I have had some practice with this before related to youth group events, but not as much for families.  It felt really good to see how much my work organizing and planning this week paid off.  We had a really smooth set-up and clean up, and a really meaningful program.  Looking forward to the final tasks of this project tomorrow and Tuesday, and then I get to begin Kate’s To Do List!